The auction of a private collection of medieval torture devices in France has been stopped, due to controversy over the former owner of the rather ghoulish smorgasbord of ghastly instruments of torture dating from the Middle Ages to as late as the time of the French Revolution.

The owner was one of France's last executioners, Fernand Meyssonnier, who operated the infamous guillotine in Algeria when the French were fighting to keep control of the country, more than 50 years ago. It is Meyssonnier's connection to France's widely condemned practices during the Algerian war that has caused the controversy.

Auction house Cornette de Saint Cyr, which was to sell the items, pointed out that although Meyssonnnier was a state executioner by trade, for him torture was just a hobby. The auction house states that none of the instruments were used by Meyssonnier in Algeria or anywhere else, but others claim that brutal torture was practiced by the French in Algeria.

"The collection is of major historical interest. Some 350 objects trace the criminal history of France under the old regime and revolutionary massacres," said Bertrand Cornette de Saint Cyr, who was to auction the collection. Meyssonnier died in 2008 and the collection is being sold by his daughter. Included in the collection are an iron maiden, metal torture masks, a chair studded with spikes, whips, swords and manacles.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com